With curiosity coming from one of my best friends on this issue, I have a question for you Dopers.
For those of you who swithced college majors midway, was it at all a life changing event? Did you approach things differently than you would have before changing majors? (question diliberately ambiguous)
well, if you decide to switch majors your SR year, it’ll probably fuck you up good and proper–well, if it’s a huge change. Like if you’re going from Art History to Business Management or something. If it’s your sophomore year and you haven’t had many major classes (I didn’t start mine until my Jr year…) it’s probably not a huge deal…
(hangs head in shame) My friends, I am one such fuck-up! After 3+ years of study in Civil Engineering I not only switched majors (to Journalism) I even transferred schools.
I didn’t think too much about the financial aspects of this at the time, which is just as well. I mean, I HATED engineering so much, I was getting the hell out no matter what. But my first college was an ungodly expensive private school, and I racked up a mountain of debt. Had I got my engineering degree it wouldn’t have been too onerous, but nobody ever gets rich being a journalist.
So, I guess my answer would be yes, it did change my life, but in good ways, mostly. Sure, I’m saddled with debt for the next 20 years, but at least I’m doing something I actually have genuine talent at, and that gives me a sense of accomplishment. I look at the way things might have been and shrug; maybe I should’ve done this, maybe I should’ve done that, etc., blah blah. In a person’s early twenties there are few choices with consequences so severe they can’t be outlived. I’m a better man for having followed my instincts. Too bad more kids aren’t allowed to do that, instead of being guided into the “right” professions by controlling parents.
I thought it was pretty much expected that everyone changes their major at least a time or two these days… I didn’t change my major, but I was in the extreme minority among people I knew.
In fact, at my college, the change of majors is so predictable and wide-spread that people call the first year pre-med courses “pre-business” because all the frosh show up thinking they’re going to be doctors then run for the B school after the first semester when the science ends up being harder than they expected.
I changed midway from History to Marketing because I hated writing in-class essays and had no desire to teach or pay for grad or law school. Honestly the only thing that changed is I’m a lot more agressive and career minded, for instance talking to people when I was in History was always a problem because I’m shy. But in the business school I got much thicker skin because you have to or you fail. And the more I 'm forced to “network” (the liberal arts part of me still alive cringes at the word) and work with people the more I enjoy it and improve. Other than that I’m pretty much the same. I have a much shorter haircut too, but I still only shave once a week (although I need to daily).
Nah, I’ve changed from English to Psych back to English. No big deal.
I changed from Engineering to Biology midway through my second year. It changed my life in that it made me a lot happier. It was a State school so there luckily was no “mountain” of debt, and the salary difference turned out to be not all that great. Actually, I would have been a miserable engineer, so I could very well have ended up being paid less than I am now.
I’ve said before on these boards that switching majors (against the advice of my parents BTW) was one of the smartest decisions I ever made.
I switched from music education to management information systems at the end of second year. For me, it was a life-changing event because I had believed I would one day be a high school band director since my freshman year of high school. I spent years learning everything I could on the subject, but I just fizzled out in frustration and jumped to another interest.
I suppose you could say that I approached things differently. Up until this semester, I hadn’t been as passionate about my major as I had been when I was music education major. As a consequence, my grades dipped quite a bit (they also dipped for quite a few different reasons, but this is one of the two biggest).
For me, switching majors also caused quite a few academic problems. In the music school, you spread your core curriculum classes throughout your four/five years in the undergraduate problem. You also start taking a lot of your major-related courses your first year. In the business college, you have to get all of your core curriculum and business core curriculum out of the way before you can start the courses for your major. I’ve had to play a lot of catch-up, and I have a lot of unused courses sitting on my academic audit now.
Fully agree with you here, Lago. I changed after my sophomore year from Math to Education, and I’m really feeling great. The only problem is that I’ll be spending another two-or-so years in college.
Actually, that’s not so much of a problem. College is swell.
shit, I started as a Chem major. Gave that up after one year. Ended up with an econ degree because that required the fewest units, and a Mandarin minon (with more units than my econ major)
Actually you reminded me, the one drawback to switching majors was that it took me one extra semester to graduate. In the long run, that didn’t matter at all but in the short run it was a little bit of a bummer…all my friends graduated in May and I didn’t until the following January.
I could have graduated on time if I had gone to summer school, I just didn’t.
Not everybody changes his major. My girlfriend stayed in advertising from the moment she started, and it’s looking like I won’t change my major before I finish. Well, technically I did - I added economics to philosophy for a double major after a semester or two, but that had always been the plan.
That said, I do wish I’d chosen something more practical like engineering or computer science. Cash is a beautiful thing. I need cash. Economics and philosophy won’t bring me cash. (Thales and oil notwithstanding.)
Is it a life-changing event? Not usually. I know one one fellow in particular who’d gone from - jeez - engineering, to pharmacy, to something else, before finally realizing he had no talent in anything remoately scientific or quantitative. He’s over three years in and I don’t think he yet has any concrete plans. I’d say actually choosing something would be the life-changing event for him.
I’d guess the degree to which a major switch might be (in the near-term, which is what I think you’re asking about) life changing depends a lot on the disciplines involved. Some curricula allow one to not even declare a major until halfway through, while others demand you take core courses early on, if you’re to finish in 4 or 5 years.
I started as a psych major and took all kinds of unrelated classes and finally graduated as a psych major. Then I went back to school as a geology major and realized that curriculum wouldn’t allow for much outside of what the department wanted you to absorb during four years. Ah well, I’d had my fill of fun classes.
Also, and I’m sure examples can be summoned from many different comparisons, psych majors don’t go on many camping trips together. Geoscience majors tend to get to know each other.
My college GF was a music major, one of those that demand you attend to major courses from the start, until her senior year, when she switched to medical technology. Almost a start over situation.
Yeah, no biggie at all.
Me: History to Education to Mass Comm to History.
And I’m doing all right.
Do what you feel is right. Pick up the pieces afterwards. You’ll be happier for it.
Honestly, I can’t remember offhand what my college major was.
I changed from psychology to journalism in the middle of my junior year. I realized I couldn’t make money off people’s troubles, so I went into journalism and … hey, wait a minute. That’s how I make money now. But I’m better at telling stories than at offering meaningful advice to people.
I managed to build up a psych minor before the switch, which in fact did look good on a resume. During the great navel gaze, I gave some thought to switching into architecture instead, something I also loved, but that would have required another four or FIVE years and was too frighteningly competitive for my tastes.
So, it was life-changing. My life improved greatly afterward!
And, **Lizard, **don’t be too worried about the money in journalism. If you do have real talent – especially in graphics or editing – chances are you could be making as much or more than an engineer, at a big-city newspaper, at least. But expect to pay your dues first, and be prepared to make at least one big move.
Here’s my data (state school)
J, my friend, class of '05 - Astrophysics -> Physics -> Math, no problems yet
U, friend, class of '05 - Computer Science -> Math, no problems
L, best friend, '05 - Biology, never changed
C, best friend, '05 - Meterology, never changed
P, boyfriend, '06 - Computer Science, never changed though everytime takes a class outside his major, he temporarily wants to minor in the area
Me, Dec '04 - Chemistry, never changed
As you can see, not everyone changes their majors. They say it’s very common, and when I started college, many professors told me that I “would” change my major. None of my friends who did have had any problems, though they got the switching bug out of their systems between sophomore and junior years.
~M
Not really. I started out undeclared, switched to graphic design, switched to computer science, and then switched back to graphic design. Now I copyedit books for a living. Go figure.
Ive gone pre-med -> psychology -> sociology -> political science -> english (with journalism unofficially thrown in there.) I managed to finish in four years, declared english the second trimester of my senior year (had enough credits to complete it) and went on to work as a photojournalist. Screwed up, eh? Now I’m considering returning to medicine.
No, I gather for most it’s not a life-changing event at all. Mere formality.
Physics -> History 3/4 of the way through sophmore year.
I’d say it was a life changing event, since I’d been planning on working in research ever since I was in junior high, and suddenly there I was with no idea what I was going to do with my life. After spending the next two years in a low-level state of panic, one of my roommates happened to say “you know, when I went to Japan last summer, there were English schools everywhere that needed foreign teachers.”